New Industry Standard for 3D Models

   Anders Thostrup: Chairman USPI

While the impact of Covid-19 continues to reverberate, the journey towards digitalization of the process industries has gathered pace. I want to provide you with an update on recent developments.

In April 2020 USPI kicked off a new industry standardization project – the Facilities Lifecycle 3D Model Specification (FL3DMS) - as basis for 3D model design integration, for creating Digital Twins and for enabling replication and reuse of 3D designs. The project has made excellent progress thanks to active participation of the companies involved under the leadership of Martin te Lintelo of USPI and Terje Maanum of Equinor. It has issued the first draft of the new 3D specification last week.

The draft standard has been created using existing 3D Model company standards and best practices of all the participants. It focuses on the technical requirements for the creation and handover of 3D models such that the 3D model can be used for the many different use cases in projects and operations.

3D models are often poorly maintained and underutilized, particularly during operations, and companies therefore rarely extract the full value out of the 3D model. To address this problem, the FL3DMS team decided to also create a full catalogue of all the use cases for the 3D model across the asset lifecycle, to assess the business case for each use.  The draft overview of use-cases has also been issued for review. Many use cases involve a reduction in effort or risk, that can help decrease the overall footprint of our industry.

The membership of this standardization effort continues to grow, and includes Equinor, Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, Total, McDermott, Bentley, Aveva, Hexagon, Baker Hughes,Talent Swarm, IOGP-CFIHOS and DEXPI.

The members learn a lot from each other during the discussions and it is clear that there is value to the participants - both because participation gives them influence over and access to this new industry 3D standard, but also thanks to the shared learnings from their peers in the project. Should you wish to learn more or participate in this effort, please reach out to Martin te Lintelo (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

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https://www.linkedin.com/company/uspi/about/.